Austin Cooper 1: Son of Athena

The start of a battle ruins my breakfast

Hey y'all! Did I mention that Camp Half-Blood and any Percy Jackson references are by Uncle Rick? Haha I'm not Rick Riordan. Enjoy!

I wake with a cold sweat on my forehead. I sit up and take a deep breath, wiping my forehead on my shirt and attempting to even my breaths.

"Austin?" I jump so high I may have brushed the ceiling and squint through the darkness to find the source of the voice.

My half-sister, Kat, was sitting up in her bed with her blankets pulled around her shoulders and staring at my from her bed across the room. When I gave her a pathetic wave she threw off her covers.

Like a Ninja, she soundlessly hopped out of bed and crept across the cold floor to sit on the end of my bed.

Kat is fifteen, small built with long legs, but with the moonlight shining through the windows she looked just like Athena. Confident, graceful, and strong like a warrior.

"Austin, it's Kathrine. Are you okay?" I knew she must be worried. Kat never uses her full name.

"Um... Yeah," I answer slowly, running my fingers through my hair with a shaky hand. "I just had a bad dream."

She looked into my eyes and I immediately knew what she was doing. She is trying to read me.

But I am a child of Athena too, and I have learned how to read others expressions and to hide mine.

She sighs, obviously unable to get any details from my expression. "Bad dream?" She acknowledges with question in her voice. "Yeah," I answer again, reluctant to give any more information. "Do you want to talk about it?" She asks.

The image of the golden and rotten skull comes back into my mind and I shiver.

"Not really." We stay quiet for a minute. "You can go back to bed Kat... I will too." I decide, quietly laying back down.

She pauses, debating whether or not she should follow my advice. "If you need anything come get me." With that she quietly sneaks across the room.

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Chiron looked at me in concern.

   I have just finished telling him my dream. "My boy, do you know when they are attacking?" He asks.

  "No," I answered, looking down at my feet.

"Then we will have to find out," he replies, leaning forward in his wheelchair.

"Close your eyes and look deep into your thoughts. Reach the army of The Reaper and go into their minds," he instructs with a firm gaze.

"But, I can't do that. I can't look into someone's mind that far away." I answer, embarrassed at my inability to use my own powers.

"Yes, you can. Close your eyes and think." He said as I close my eyes with a annoyed sigh.

"Austin, you are so much more powerful than you think you are." I focus on Chiron's voice alone. I look into his mind and see the faith he has in me.

I smile to myself and picture the warrior skeleton, Bones.

  I see his face and then dig deeper and see his thoughts. My eyes fly open and I gasp. "Tonight. They- they are coming tonight." I answer with a gasp.

Chiron stands, his horse tail swishing nervously. "Excellent my boy! We must hurry and tell the camp. We need to get the younger campers to safety and the rest ready for battle.

I follow Chiron to the mess hall. "Attention campers!" He announced getting all the demigods attention.

  I spot Bella sitting at the Poseidon table and sit next to her. I didn't want to be up there as Chiron tells the news.

She looks over at me with a worried expression as Chiron tells the campers about the upcoming battle.

   "I would like all campers 10 or younger to go with the satyrs to safety. If you are a new camper and are not experienced in battle I would like you to go too." He paused looking at the crowed to make eye contact with those who he was leaving unnamed.

  I could hear the whispers some of the younger campers cursing in Greek. They always want to be in the battles, but they are just too young.

  I remember when I was first at camp. Whenever we would have a battle I would have to be escorted out of the camp by a satyr. It was embarrassing as I got closer to 10 and I almost jumped for joy when I made the battle cut.

  The younger campers would go to the other camp for Roman demigods. They always help us when we need a place to go and we do the same for them.

"The battle will be tonight so we must hurry." Everyone started moving. Younger campers found a satyr and start to leave the camp.

  I see a little girl that looks about seven go up to Chiron asking if she can stay. He shakes his head and a nymph comes and takes her with the younger campers.

The older campers started going to get armor and weapons. Some of the younger demigods that attend mine and Bella's sword training class run to us, begging to stay, but Bella knelt down to tell them they must go.

  Alice, Logan, and Tyler appear in the crowd and walk towards us.

"You should go with them." Logan said as he reaches the table. He looked at me, but mainly talked to Bella.

  "You are the ones they want," he explains. "Bella you are still weak," he adds quietly.

Bella's face turns red with anger. She stands up. "Logan I am not- I repeat NOT leaving you guys here to fight without me! I am a daughter of Poseidon! I can help. I am not a damsel in distress that can't defend herself. I can fight for myself!" Bella is usually so laid back and calm that it was a surprise for all of us to hear her sudden outburst.

Logan stood in shocked silence, glancing to me. I shrug. I'm not in charge of Bella, nobody is."I don't want you to get hurt." Logan said under his breath, turning to meet Bella's determined eyes again.

  Then he does something that made my face burn with anger. He leans over the table and kisses Bella on the cheek.

Bella freezes, shocked. Then Logan jumps up. "Tyler, let's go get some armor." With that he turns and runs off leaving a shocked Tyler to stumble after him.

I look over at Bella. She had a hand put up to the cheek he kissed and a small smile on her face that still looked slightly shocked.

  Then, as if waking from a deep sleep, she looks over at me. "Let's get our weapons." She said, her voice now soft from surprise and other emotions I couldn't pick out, and turns to go to the Poseidon cabin.

  Alice glances to me. "She's right. We should get our weapons from our cabins." She has a apologetic look on her face, obviously seeing the emotions I was attempting to hide.

"Um... Yeah." Even though I had my coin in my pocket I get up and go to the Athena cabin, upset that I hadn't made a move like that sooner.